NSRL User Guide

[1] Different isotopes of some ions are also available.  With the commissioning of EBIS, the Electron Beam Ion Source and the Laser Ion Source, virtually all ion species can be available.

[2] In general it has become fairly routine to change beam energy, and if a beam energy is not listed in this table, there is not necessarily any reason why it cannot be tuned up at the request of a user.

[3] Intensity per spill refers to the number of ions delivered each spill.  The spill structure during most radiobiology exposures has a 4 second repetition time.  During the 4 second period, the ions are extracted more or less uniformly in time during a 0.3-0.4 second spill, followed by a ~3.6 second beam-off time.  For protons, the maximum beam intensity is delivered when using the LINAC as the ion source.  If using the Tandem as the ion source instead, the maximum proton beam intensity is 2.5 x 10¹¹ protons per spill.

[4] LET, or Linear Energy Transfer is calculated for a water target and is in units of keV per micron.  More detailed LET distributions can be viewed here.

[5] SPE: The August of 1972 solar proton event (SPE) represents one of the largest events on record and the simulated spectra will consists of protons from a few 10's of MeV to 1 GeV that will approximately represent the Joseph King fit to the observed spectra given by the following equation

Φ(E) = 2.98x10⁸  e^-(E-30)/26.5

where E is the proton energy in MeV. The September and October 1989 events represent spectra with larger contributions from high energy protons and will be represented by the integral rigidity spectra

Φ(R)= N e^-R/R0

with R₀ = 110 MV.

For guidance on expected energy spectra of protons and secondaries behind tissue or other experimental materials including simulation of spacecraft shielding please contact BNL or NASA JSC staff.

[6] LET, or Linear Energy Transfer is calculated for a silicon target, and is in units of MeV-cm2/mg. Graph of Range in silicon versus LET (.pdf)

NSRL is available to operate blocks of time for SPE simulations in either the standard (20x20 cm²) or a large beam configuration (60x60 cm²). BNL staff will work with approved experiments to facilitate beam sharing during the large beam SPE blocks.